The art of money making

Synopsis
Making money is one of the most important things in WoW to be able to get you whatever you want. This is how I do it.

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I don't want to buy money. Out of principle, because I think it is cheating, and because if you get caught Blizzard has all rights to close your account.

There was a time I didn't have much money. In TBC I started working the auctionhouse by means of enchanting. Buy greens cheap, and sell the disenchanted materials for a lot. This is still doable, but I am not selling those mats. I rather keep them and use em on enchants. I made about 1k a week doing that in TBC. But the market crashed a bit at the end. And others discovering that way of money making, meant I got more competition and I just didn't like it. Selling enchants will make you some money too, but it is not that much to be honest.

I then realized that the best way to make money is to not spend money on every day things. If you can stop spending money on food (IRL) you'd be able to afford a decent car at the end of the year!
So I dropped leatherworking and got myself herbalism. Herbalism + druid = win anyway. I never had to pay for flasks, elixirs or potions ever again. I already had fishing + cooking to the max so food was no problem either. Being an enchanter myself I had enough enchanting materials and could get the mats cheap from disenchanting. The only thing I had to buy were gems.

Then I got bored. I was resto and I leveled a warlock to do some pewpew. Never played her much and instead went feral with my druid and did way more damage then my lock. My lock had tailoring and mining. That made some money, but tailoring was boring (Lock is boring in general). Then when WotLK was announced and I knew herbalism's buff (2k hot) sucked completely for PVE (come on... I am a druid. If I need a hot I will heal myself, and if I am in combat, 2k over 12 secs on 30k health is sucky at best). So I would go for inscription, mostly because it was new and I wanted to see it and the buff would be good. The 7th glyph was changed to shoulder enchant, which is meh, but still ok.

So I dropped herbalism on my druid. Lock dropped tailoring and gained herbalism. Lock + herbalism is not as much win as druid + herbalism, but the thing is that it is the 2nd best option. With a Felguard and heavy Demonology spec you can land, dot the mob(s) and set your Felguard at it. With 2 or 3 dots and you can start Herbing without being interrupted while the mobs lowly dies. It is about the same as Beasmaster Hunter, but better. Then I also found out that herbing + mining is uber win! Made a macro to alternate tracking, bound it to a mousebutton and I am now solely flying on my minimap.

Now in WotLK I can fly around in Sholazar basin and in 1 hour grind (approximately):

• 6 stacks of Adder's Tongue
• 3 stacks of Goldclover
• 3 stacks of Tiger Lily
• 2 stacks of Deadnetle
• 5 Frost Lotus
• 6 Eternal Life

From mining I get about:

• 7 stacks of Saronite ore
• 4 stacks of Eternal Shadow
• 4 stacks of Eternal Earth
  
• a few Titanium
• 1 rare quality gem
• Some lesser gems and other Eternals
  

How much does it make? Well if you prospect all the ore, cut the gems, mill all the herbs and make em into Frost Oil, and sell the Eternals. You will make about 500 to 700 gold an hour (on my server). So fuck dailies. I did dailies pure for the rep (all maxed) and got the 1000 dailies done achievement. So only the cooking (and soon to be fishing daily) left. Also I do the one that can reward the polar bear mount untill I have it.
Do I level? Nope! My lock is lvl 78 and has been so for 2 whole days played and is only at 60% of the level it. Of course being fully rested and wearing the +10% xp shoulders.

Are there any other ways I make money? Sure. The Titanium I smelt. I send my miner 1 eternal fire and with the shadow and earth it makes Titansteel every day. Some life I send to one of my 2 transmute alchemists and make fire from it. The other one I have turn earth into air. Just as long as I need air to stock up.

I cut the gems myself with one of my alts (with whom I do the JC daily every day, and could sell the Dragon's Eye but I don't) and so the only thing I had to buy before I can do now too. There are a few other things I need other players for (making pots and elixirs/flasks) but in my guild we have enough masters so that is no problem.
Now In WotLk the things I was unable to make myself were an eternal belt buckle (so I leveled a DK in blacksmithing, though that costed like 4k gold). I have a skinner who can supply my girlfriends druid with the materials to make leg enchants. The only thing I buy now and then are Frozen orbs.

So as a summary, if you truly want to make money and make repair costs the only thing you have to spent money on... Get yourself some alts. My main and alts are:

• 80 Druid: Enchanting + Inscription
• 78 Warlock: Mining + Herbing
• 71 Paladin: Alchemy (transmute master) + Jewelcrafting
• 70 Hunter: Skinning + Engineering (totally wasted profession moneymaking wise, but fun)
• 68 Deathknight: Alchemy (transmute master) + Blacksmithing

All got their skills to 440 or higher.
The only thing you need to invest is time.